Arras: Highs and lows

Footprint: 5.7 kg of CO2

Nord Pas de Calais doesn’t seem to get the love it deserves from some travel guides / the rest of France, but I really love it. There’s a lot of fascinating local history and the beffrois (belltowers) that can be found in a lot of towns are pas mal (not bad!).

On the top of a hill near Arras, there’s a fairly new war memorial at Notre Dame de Lorette that we went to check out. There’s a tower nearby with some old photos and war memorabilia, but also a stack of unidentified soldiers’ bodies that extend down into a hole in the tower, which was quite striking:

The memorial is built in the shape of an oval with the names of soldiers killed in the war arranged alphabetically. Unlike other memorials in the area, which are specific to the country where the soldiers came from, all soldiers here are listed alphabetically regardless of nationality:

It was windy and serene and the perfect spot for a memorial:

Next, we went to Arras and took a tour of the caves under the Grand Place:

Then we went up the beffroi (this one had an elevator that took us most of the way) and got to see Arras from up top:

Not nearly as cool as Bethune, but still definitely worth a visit!

FOOTPRINT

Distance travelled: 76.5 km

CO2 used: 17 kg / 3 = 5.7 kg